Security personnel were deployed ‘without live ammunition’ for PTI’s Nov 24 protest, interior ministry says

The interior ministry reiterated on Sunday that despite a prior Islamabad High Court (IHC) ruling deeming PTI’s November 24 power show “unlawful,” the party still breached the Red Zone in Islamabad.

On Nov 13, incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan issued a “final call” for nationwide protests on Nov 24, demanding the restoration of the PTI’s electoral mandate, the release of detained party members, and the reversal of the 26th Amendment, which he said had strengthened a “dictatorial regime”.

In the early hours of Wednesday, a day of pitched battles between security forces and PTI protesters across the federal capital ended in a hasty retreat of the party’s top leadership and supporters from the Red Zone in the early hours of Wednesday.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement that security forces had “bravely repulsed the protesters”, while PTI harshly criticised the interior minister for his statements and blamed him for the alleged violence against its supporters, claiming multiple deaths.

Amnesty International condemned the violence, terming it a “brutal and lethal crackdown” on protesters by authorities. Meanwhile, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is in jail along with other key leaders, advocated for national reconciliation and national consensus to achieve political stability.

According to Sunday’s notification from the Interior Ministry, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the IHC had directed the government to engage with the PTI leadership ahead of the protest.

It went on to note that PTI had been offered Sangjani as an alternate protest venue but “in spite of the extraordinary concessions extended, PTI violated the court’s orders blatantly and instead of holding [a] protest at designated place (Sangjani), unlawfully breached entry towards the Red Zone of Islamabad,” referring to a Nov 21 IHC declaration that PTI’s Nov 24 protest was “unlawful.”

The notification further alleged that PTI protesters “aggressively engaged” Law Enforcement Authorities (LEAs) with weaponry, adding that the “violent protest was primarily orchestrated and logistically & financially sustained and supported by the resources of the government of [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]”.

“Alarmingly, PTI’s protest included violent and trained miscreant elements including many illegal Afghan nationals who spearheaded the riots and violent activities throughout the march.

“These miscreants, employed as a violent vanguard, comprised approximately 1,500 hardcore fighters working directly under absconder and proclaimed offender Murad Saeed,” the notification said.

It went on to say that the army was deployed in the capital under Article 245 of the Constitution “only to secure key government installations and foreign diplomats in the sensitive Red Zone while ensuring [a] secure environment for high-profile foreign dignitaries visiting the country.”

“LEAs comprising police and rangers were employed without live ammunition to disperse this violent mob while the army neither came in direct clash with these miscreants nor employed for riot control,” the notification said, adding that the party leadership, instead of controlling the violent mob, fled from the scene.

The information and interior ministers “promptly” visited the site of the protest after it was called off, the notification said, but “unfortunately, social media accounts of PTI resorted to planned and coordinated massive fake propaganda of deaths caused by LEAs so as to divert attention from this senseless, violent and failed activity.”

Major hospitals in Islamabad “rubbished reports” of alleged casualties caused by LEAs, but a “sustained fabricated social media campaign, using old and AI-generated clips is being viciously undertaken by PTI and joined by other inimical elements.”

“There have been multiple false claims of deaths ranging from tens to hundreds to thousands on social media as well as PTI political leadership and their official pages,” the notification said.

The statement further said that the “PTI and its social media propagandists” were bent on creating divisions and confusion within the society.

“Such elements, whether inside the country or abroad, will surely be held accountable under relevant laws and no one will be allowed to sow divisions, hatred and propagating fake news.”

The notification blasted KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur for making “baseless inflammatory statements against institutions, using KP Assembly as a platform to distort facts and spread blatant lies, rather than being shameful of inciting innocent youth of KP for such undesirable activities.”

It is concerning to note that 39 lethal weapons, including 18 automatic weapons, have been recovered from the violent protesters and that amongst the apprehended offenders there are more than three dozen paid aliens, the notification said.

With regards to material losses incurred during the violent protests, initial estimates suggest damages to the tune of hundreds of millions, it added.

“Due to these violent protests, indirect losses to the economy are estimated to be Rs192 billion per day,” it said. “In addition to that, significant expenditure incurred on taking necessary security measures [while] plundering of the financial resources by the KP government are separate.”

‘PTI should provide proof of firing by LEAs’

Meanwhile, Information Minister Atta Tarar on Sunday challenged the PTI “to show me video evidence of state law enforcement agencies (LEAs) firing on the protesters,” while speaking at a press conference in Islamabad.

“This effort to disrupt the peace in Islamabad in the name of politics, to hide the fact that effort was foiled, false statements are being given,” said Tarar.

“These protesters were armed with all kinds of weapons and Murad Saeed’s contingent was leading this conspiracy. Why would Afghans, criminals and terrorists get involved in this protest?” he asked.

He added that despite conflicting numbers of dead bodies, both the Polyclinic Hospital and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences had said nobody was killed by the LEAs.

“If there was live ammunition, it was used by these people, they fired blindly, there’s video footage of them.”

He claimed that the PTI was making fake videos and using footage from Gaza and Kurram and claiming that it was Islamabad.

“Terrorism is on the rise in KP, Kurram is seeing mass unrest, but the KP govt made this decision to come to Islamabad and then ran away. Who suffers? The people and the economy” he added.